Typically, manufacturers of application specific circuits will design a distinct PC board for each circuit. The number of that specific PC board manufactured is then determined by the number required for that specific application. The manufacturing cost of a printed circuit board (PC board) is directly related to its volume of manufacture. When the specific application requires a small number of PC boards, the cost of those boards can be quite high.
In the area of automatic transmission or power train controls it is often necessary for a single solenoid driver circuit to control as many as ten or more different solenoids or, depending on the specific transmission control application, as few as one or two solenoids. Moreover, in addition to the different numbers of solenoids that must be controlled in different circuit applications, there are also two principal types of solenoid control: proportional control and binary (on/off) control. In any given transmission control application there can be many different combinations of the number and types of solenoid controls that must be implemented by the solenoid driver circuitry. Generally, each of those specific solenoid driver applications requires a different PC board and its limited application makes each board costly. It would be preferable to find a way to reduce such costs.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming this problem.